While Los Angeles might be the nation’s second-largest city and sit just a few hundred miles from one of the world’s leading high-tech hubs, city efforts to tap into the booming Wi-Fi trend are being snubbed.

Tennessee bus riders can access free wireless Internet while zipping past old battlefield sites in Chattanooga. A pay-to-use Wi-Fi system is being installed for riders on a 35-mile rail roaring past tumbleweeds and cactus from Fort Worth to Dallas.

And in San Francisco, a private company is rolling out a wireless technology to let commuters on Market Street soar through cyberspace on any wireless carrier.

But a year after proudly touting plans to study installing Wi-Fi on the Orange Line that runs through the San Fernando Valley, Metro officials have quietly dropped the effort after a call for providers came up empty.

“They came back and said the ridership, demographics and length of trip did not suit their needs,” Metro spokesman Rick Jager said.

Meanwhile, while Metro had said it also wanted to see about installing Wi-Fi for its subways, it hasn’t sent out any requests for proposals.

Technological advances and costs – up to $3.5million for Orange Line infrastructure and another $2million a year to operate it – also contributed to the agency’s decision to delay action, Jager said.

“Staff at this time is going to take a wait-and-see position because of the rapid change of wireless technology,” he said.

“Our customers are better served by taking advantage of existing satellite wireless providers who are better equipped to provide more reliable service over greater distances.”

But it’s not just Metro that has come up short on the Wi-Fi front.

While Metrolink trains chug across five counties to downtown Los Angeles, the most their 44,000 average weekday passengers can hope for is to catch some Internet activity while passing hot spots.

Cost is a factor, of course, but Metrolink also has not been approached by a single wireless provider eager to reach out to its riders.

“We would love to be able to be able to offer it,” spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell said. “But it’s not something that Metrolink can just go into its pocket and install Wi-Fi on the trains.”

But other areas around the country are busy snapping up the technology, and some transit agencies are even using it for wireless security cameras, advertising, communications and maintenance, said Tom Racca, vice president of marketing for Colubris, a wireless LAN provider to businesses, municipalities and public transportation.

So what’s going on with L.A?

“L.A. is a little behind in this, but there is clearly a demand for it. We’re seeing it worldwide,” said Racca, who recently returned from Hong Kong where Wi-Fi is offered on subways.

“There hasn’t been as focused a need in Los Angeles because its public transportation system is still growing.”

But while some wireless businesses are even wooing cities across the country to lay down a Wi-Fi economy, Los Angeles is not yet even on the invite list.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s call last year to blanket Los Angeles with Wi-Fi access was dropped like a bad cellphone connection after EarthLink backed out of an agreement.

The struggling service company had planned to install the network at no cost to the city with radio transmitters on street lamps and other properties, hoping to make money by offering subscriptions to the service.

But company officials later decided the business model didn’t work. Similar Wi-Fi arrangements by EarthLink around the country have also been unplugged. Late last year, the provider announced plans to lay off 900 employees.

Other cities around the country also saw well-intended Wi-Fi plans sink because they wanted wireless companies to install the technology for free but then would not commit their city departments – such as fire, police and utilities – to using the system.

Because of that, many wireless businesses were not guaranteed the service would be used – which forced many to cancel the deals, said Don Lanham, president of 4G Metro, a Texas-based wireless broadband network integrator that brings Wi-Fi to cities and public transportation.

“To put it out there for free? That’s nuts. That’s like asking IBM to supply a free computer to everyone in the country,” Lanham said. “We’re for-profit. We’re not nonprofit.”

Still, Villaraigosa remains interested in providing Wi-Fi service in the city, and a feasibility report on financing options is expected to be considered within a month, Villaraigosa spokesman Matt Szabo said.

Ultimately, some said Los Angeles’ long-standing affinity for driving and its entrenched car culture could be playing a role in lagging Wi-Fi efforts.

Providers might have the simple perception that the L.A. market has too many drivers who won’t be lured onto mass transit – despite healthy ridership and expansion of the Gold Line into East Los Angeles and the Expo Line to Culver City.

“I don’t think people have quite the idea as to how well-developed our system is,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

“This would be one of the more attractive markets to be involved in. We’re always on the cutting edge of so many things.

“But people have strange perceptions of L.A. Every so often you run into that.”

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